Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And the iTunes store contains 28 million different songs. Last.fm carries 45 million songs and the
Gracenote database of artists, titles, and labels contains 130 million different songs.
That's a lot. If you were to listen to all of the songs in the Gracenote database one
after the other in a giant playlist, it would take you more than 1,200 years to complete. But since there are a finite number of tones
our ears can distinguish and because it only takes a few notes in common for two musical
ideas to sound similar, will we ever run out of new music? Will there ever be a day where every possible
brief little melody has been written and recorded and we are left with nothing new to make? A good rule of thumb might be to say that
if modern recording technology can't distinguish the difference between two songs, well, neither
could we. So, let's begin there, with digital downloads, MP3's, CD's, and a calculation
made by Covered in Bees. Digital music is made out of "bits."
Lots and lots of bits. But each individual bit exists in one of two states: a "0" or a "1." Now, what this means in that for any given,
say, 5-minute-long audio file, the number of possibilities, mathematically speaking,
is enormous, but mind-blowingly finite. A compact disk, which samples music at 44.1
kHz, is going to need about 211 million bits to store one 5-minute song. And because a
bit can exist in two states, either a "0" or a "1," the number of possible different
ways to arrange those 211,000,000 bits is 2 to the 211th million power. That value represents every single possible
different 5-minute-long audio file. But how big is that number?
Well, let's put this in perspective. A single drop of water contains 6 sextillion
atoms. 6 sextillion is 22 digits long. That's a long number. But the total number of atoms
that make up the entire earth is a number that is about 50 digits long. And estimations
of the total number of hydrogen atoms in our universe is a number that is 80 digits long. But "2 to the 211 millionth power," the number
of possible, different 5-minute audio files, is a number that is 63 million digits long. It is a number
larger than we can even pretend to understand. It contains every possible CD quality 5-minute
audio file. Inside that amount is everything from Beethoven's "5th" to Beck's "Loser" -
it even contains a 5 minute conversation you had with your parents when you were 3 years old.
In fact, every one of them. It even contains every possible conversation you didn't have
with your parents when you were 3 years old. But, it is finite, not infinite. It's cool
to think about, but it doesn't come very close to answering the question of this video, which
is "how many possible different songs can we create and hear the difference between?" So, for that, we're going to need to narrow
down our hunt. On Everything2, Ferrouslepidoptera made a
calculation that involved some assumptions that I think helped narrow the field down
in a really nice way. She took a look at the total number of possible
different melodies you could create within one octave, containing any or all of the intervals
we divide octaves into. Of course, sound frequencies can be divided much more granularly than that,
but giving ourselves more notes might mean we could make more technically different melodies,
but they wouldn't necessarily sound any different to our ears. Now, given a single measure containing any
combination of whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth or thirty-second notes, she calculated
that there would be this many possible unique measures, which is a smaller number than we
had before, but, to put it in perspective, this is how many seconds old the universe is. Yerricde's calculation is even more specific.
He stayed within one octave, but instead of looking at a complete measure, he only considered
the number of unique combinations of 8 notes. He also assumed that typical melodies, as
we know them today, only contain about three different types of note length. For instance, quarter, eighth and sixteenth or whole, half and quarter. To be sure, that will most likely not always
be true. Musical tastes hundreds, thousands of years from now will most assuredly be different,
but given melodies as we know them today, across 8 notes, over 12 intervals, there are
about 79 billion possible combinations. We're getting relatively small here. I mean,
under this definition of melody, 100 songwriters creating a brand new 8-note melody every second
would exhaust every possible melody within only 248 years. But it's still a huge number, way bigger than
the total number of songs that have been written that we know about. So, you can quite safely
say that, no, we will never run out of new music. But here's the rub. If that's the case,
why are there so many commonalities between songs? Even across hundreds of years, how
come so many songs kind of sound the same? I mean, if we have more possibilities than
we could ever exhaust, why is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the "Alphabet Song," and "Baa,
Baa, Black Sheep," all the same melody? "My Country Tis of Thee," and "God Save the
Queen," interestingly enough, are the same song. "Love Me Tender," is exactly the same as the
old American Civil War song "Aura Lea." And a seemingly uncountable number of songs
merely sound like other songs. The Spongebob Squarepants theme has a very similar cadence
to "Blow the Man Down." Soundsjustlike.com is a great resource for
exploring this further. It'll show you two songs and how they sort of sound alike. And when it comes to musical chords,
it's almost as if there's no variety at all, as was famously shown by The Axis of Awesome's
"4 Chords." I've linked it in the description, it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it
already. These guys sing more than 40 different songs using the same four chords... Even though the number of possible different
melodies is gigantic, us humans tend to gravitate towards certain patterns that we like more
than others and we are influenced by what came before us. Kirby Ferguson has a fantastic
series looking into this called "Everything is a Remix." I've also linked that down in
the description. The commonalities he shows are pretty crazy. Well, even when it comes to lyrics, to writing,
even though, mathematically, there are more possibilities than we could ever exhaust,
we have gravitated towards a few. In fact, there's a form of poetic meter that is so
common it's called "Common Meter." I've composed a verse using it to explain what it is. Line one contains eight syllables. The next
contains just six. For emphasis: iambic stress. That's it, no other tricks. Here is a list of songs that are written in common
meter, also known as "Balad Meter." The commonness of common meter is the reason you can sing
the Pokemon theme song to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Or House of the Rising Sun. Or Amazing
Grace. You could also use almost any of Emily Dickinson's poetry. Sure, they're different
melodies, but their lyrics are written in the same meter. There's a great video on YouTube that I've
linked below in the description that uses captions to let you see just how these all
fit together. Oh, and don't forget one of the greatest compositions
taking advantage of common meter's commonness: Stairway to Gilligan's Island. And you know what? Our brains may also be
keeping us from enjoying the entire mathematical space of available songs. For instance,
research has shown that the way a song compresses, using software, can help us predict how enjoyable
it will be. Too simple, too easy to compress, like, say, a rising scale, and the song doesn't
challenge us - it's boring. But too complicated, say, white noise, and the file won't compress
very much at all, and, likewise, we don't seem to enjoy it. There's a magic zone where
a file is compressible by a computer, and also happens to be enjoyable by us. So, interestingly, even though mathematically
speaking, there are so many possible unique melodies that we can safely say, there will
always be room for new music, we don't seem to be wired to care. We enjoy certain patterns
and melodies and calculating how many there could be is a lot less interesting than how
connected and similar all the ones that we enjoy are. It's as if we have more space than
we need, more space than we could ever hope to see all of, or visit all of, or know all
of, but no matter what new place we go, in a general sense, new, popular music will always
remind us a bit of home. And as always, thanks for watching. Fantastic, you're still here. If you want
to hear music from people like you, from Vsaucers, go check out WeSauce. You can submit music,
animation, short films, anything that you're making and putting on YouTube to us and we'll
feature it on WeSauce. It's like a trailer for what Vsaucers are doing. Speaking of which, Jake Chudnow, who does
all of the music in these videos, has a brand new song out over on his channel,
which I highly suggest you go give a listen.
I've spent a lot of time learning music theory. Something that happens when you delve into the mechanics of music, is that you begin to hear how every song is constructed.
its actually pretty cruel. things that used to sound good begin to all sound the same, or overly simple. It kills a lot of music for me, over time. I'm sure a lot of the music guys here experience the same stuff.
We wont run out of possible music, but that doesn't stop people from doing the same thing for each song.
You find with each genre of music, there tends to be themes that repeat themselves. Chord progressions, song structure, rhythm and so fourth. And people expect to hear these things from those genres. Even if its subconsciously.
We grow up listening to certain types of music, and that type of music becomes more of a comfort zone. We expect certain progressions and changes, and we feel good when that music adheres to our previous musical experiences. That structure of music makes us happy and we get great validation (release of dopamine) when we are correct at in our presumptions at how a song is going to play out.
Although mathematically we wont run out of music, i think i would be making a safe bet in saying; we wont run out of music because most people instinctively prefer certain musical structures over others. And we will continue to make similar sounding music because that is what makes us feel good. Or is at least proven to make us feel good.
It's also a very easy thing to cash in on, if you know how. But That's an argument for another post.
TL;DW yes, music is finite, but the number is so large we won't reach it. Also our brains are wired to like a certain type of music, hence the similarities of tons of music.
One of the things he doesn't touch on which is actually very important to music composition is harmony. You can take the same melodic line but change the harmonization to create a drastically different effect. Counterpoint is another example of how depth in music can be reached not simply through melody but by juxtaposing musical intervals as combinations of melodic lines and implied chord structures.
Finally, notes aren't simply sine waves. The tone of a violin is quite different than the tone of a trumpet which is quite different from the tone of a harp. The instrument can change the feel of a musical piece as much as the specific notes being played.
And before he starts flying around about how many bits can be fit on a CD or how many notes can be fit in a measure he should read the library of babel. Simply dumping notes randomly onto a musical staff is about as likely to create a song as dumping random letters onto a page creating a coherent sentence.
Melody isn't even required in music, so this explanation isn't really necessary.
I'm glad Vsauce is getting the recognition it deserves. It was getting an average of 400,000 views but recently every single video they put up gets over a million views, with some getting 5 million views or more, and getting featured on reddit and shared a whole bunch. They're really informative and a lot of effort goes into them.
I paused at just the right time
? Why is he talking about the maximum poossible combinations of bits culminating in 5 minute audio sounds, almost every single possible combination would make up random noise. Why is what he is talking about relevent here?
Melody is relative. Keep yourself to a single key, if You want to calculate this shit. Better yet, figured bass.
I'm a bit disappointed he never covered Microtones, or tones smaller than a half step. (Ex: quartertones) Including these opens up an entirely huge number of possibilities.
For those unsure of microtones:
In equal temperment, which is the system that creates the 12 note scale that is so commonly accepted by the West as the "norm", there are obviously usually only 12 acceptable notes per scale (depending on what mode you're using).
In the East it's a bit more common to hear use of microtones. For instance, traditional Indonesian gamelan utilizes microtones by tuning their metallophones slightly apart from one another. Their reasoning is to create a "shimmer" effect when the bars are allowed to vibrate. In Western notation we use "vibrato" on vocal and wind instruments, but gamelan utilizes microtonal tuning to create a makeshift "shimmer"/"vibrato" on their various metallophones.
Western composers have utilized microtones, but it's not very common. You typically only hear it in art music.
Quarter Tone Piano Prelude
Turkish Bath by Don Ellis
That last track by American Trumpeter Don Ellis utilizes microtones in the tuning of the 4 Soprano Saxophones that carry the melody early on. To the western-trained ear, they all sound "out of tune", but in reality they're simply tuned quarter tones apart from one another intentionally. Later, you can hear Don rip out a ridiculous quarter tone trumpet solo. Ballin.